Historically, ceiling fans have been mounted by suspending the fan from a bracket attached to a beam in the ceiling. Later developments in mounting made use of a ball-joint ceiling hanger and down rod. This mounting scheme allowed the down rod and fan to pivot in the ceiling hanger giving consumers the ability to mount fans to ceilings which were not horizontal. Recently, more and more homes are being built with cathedral ceilings having pitch angles so steep that the standard ball-joint mount is incapable of allowing the fan to pivot to the angle needed to allow the fan to hang vertically.